You Never Know

The lady who spoke at our women conference yesterday, was a storyteller.  She had lots of really interesting stories.

I want to share one with you.  It won't be as eloquently as she told it, I'm sure.  But it really touched me.  We just never know the things that we do that we may think insignificant, that are mighty for God.

Before I share the story, I want to preface it.  For the first month of Erika's life, she was in a NICU.  She had no visitors, no mommy doting over her, no grandmas taking photos.  This has always broken my heart.  Her first Christmas, when she was 10 days old, she had surgery, to repair her intestines.  Her belly button is proof of this.  But even though I did not know her, God had placed her on my heart.  As I have looked back at journals, it was the month that she was born, that God told me to pray for my daughter.  We had not started the process of foster care, but I knew God had someone very special out there for me...that I needed to find.  So I just began to pray. 

The first foster home that she lived in were a wonderful Christian couple.  That is what I prayed.  That if she was alive, God would put her somewhere safe.  She went home from the hospital weighing 4 pounds at a month old.  This husband and wife were both nurses.  They not only loved Erika so much, they took excellent care of her.  That is why she is so healthy (and God's hand on her, of course). 

Anyway, this is a side note, but those of you that pray, I ask that you would pray with me.  I have contacted the hospital where she was born to see if there are any photos of that first month.  I would love to see, but I know as Erika grows, it would be important to her.  They are looking, so I am praying they show up soon:)

Now to the story:

There was a man in Dallas.  He was awarded as giving the most blood in the area.  You see, this was his purpose in life.  To help others.  One day, as he passed by the NICU of Parkland hospital, he saw all the babies all alone.  Many of them were born addicted to drugs or had other medical problems.  Many of them had been left to die.  Noone visited them.  So he volunteered to go in and rock the babies.  He would rock them and tell them that they were loved.  He would be their father and pray over them and love them.  Sometimes holding them until they took their last breath.  But letting these babies know they were special and loved. 

This broke my heart as I heard this story.  I know that Erika's birthmom held her but then she had to leave.  She could not stay and take care of her baby.  I know that must have broke her heart in a million pieces.  I know she cared about her because she chose to bring her life.  She named her.  She held her for a moment.  I know the nurses loved on her.  The kit I have from the hospital has all the stockings and stuffed animals the nurses gave her.  I have so many times wished we would have known about her.  That I would have dropped everything I was doing to go and get her...if I had known.  I would stayed by her side in the hospital.

But I didn't know her.  And the timing probably wasn't right.  And she needed to touch another family before she came to us.  The first foster mom told me...they always knew there was something special about Erika. She was their 40th foster child and last.  They knew as they would pray over her, that God had a special plan for her.  That she was different.  She would not get lost in the system.

So, even when Erika was formed in her mother's womb, God had a purpose for this little ball of energy.  She is special to God...because He put her on my heart so long ago.  He put a passion inside my heart to find her.  And He literally guided my steps to her.

You never know...what God has put in your heart...take it seriously.  Pursue it.  It will be the best journey of your life.